(KSBW) Police in Santa Cruz, California say a young woman who works as a model and prostitute murdered a man who hired her for sex on his yacht and attempted to quickly cover up the crime.

Alix Catherine Tichleman, 26, was arrested by Santa Cruz police at 4 a.m. on July 4 and was booked into jail on charges of murder, prostitution, and destroying evidence.

The murder case that Santa Cruz detectives described on Tuesday resembled a fiction novel.

On Nov. 23, 2013, Hayes was found dead on his yacht anchored in the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor. His death looked suspicious, and detectives launched an intensive investigation to learn more about him and what he was doing that night.

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